Roses
by Cerih
Summary: How would you spend your last night on Earth? Songfic, takes place after Marionette, but otherwise AU. Peter/Olivia


Disclaimer: I own neither Fringe nor the song.

Author's note: This was meant to be a quick songfic, but it rather ballooned on me. This is definitely a one-off, though, so I leave it up to you to decide how things go from there. The song is Roses by Darren Hayes, which is beautiful and sad and you should go listen to it now.

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Roses

"_What if I told you that your time was up,  
That as every second passes there's a moment gone,  
And in twenty three hours the sun was gonna set, forever"_

Olivia and Peter faced each other, both of their faces showing matching expressions of mute horror and panic. Between them, a lab table was littered with electronic devices and spools of brightly-coloured wires, as well as a data chip from a shape shifter they had caught earlier that day. The creature had crossed over very recently and it still had information from the other side stored inside it, information that they had managed to retrieve and decode.

"Are you sure you deciphered it correctly?" Olivia asked eventually, breaking the stunned silence.

"There's not mistake," Peter said slowly. "Walternate will attempt to rip apart our universe tomorrow evening, just after sunset."

"I'll call Broyles."

_"Would you hug a little tighter, would you let go first,  
Would you focus on love and then forget the hurt,  
Live in the moment or wish your life away"_

While Olivia finished her phone call to Broyles and tucked her phone away, Peter remained watching her. The initial shock had worn off and his eyes had grown dark and unreadable.

"Broyles wants us at the head quarters as soon as possible," Olivia said, unable to hold his gaze. She went to retrieve her coat and then turned towards the door, but was stopped by a hand on her arm. She flinched and Peter quickly let go.

"Olivia," he started, keeping his voice low as if he was trying to settle a wild animal, "you realise what this means, right?"

"Of course," she shrugged, "if we don't find a way to stop Walternate, we will all be dead tomorrow." She turned to leave again.

"That's not what I mean," Peter said and the seriousness in his voice made her reluctantly pause and look at him over her shoulder. "It means that we may only have one more day to live."

"It's the same thing," Olivia shrugged again.

"Is it?" Peter asked, taking a step towards her. His gaze was intense, full of unspoken things, and she found that she could only meet it for a brief moment. She knew what he was trying to convey, but the hurt in her was still so fresh. She was not sure she could forgive him yet.

"We should go, Broyles is waiting," she said, staring at her feet. This time she nearly ran out of the lab. Peter sighed and slowly followed her out.

_"How would you spend your last night on earth,  
Would you kiss your enemies, say sorry first,  
Would you take enough time to say your last goodbyes"  
_

"Listen up people," Broyles looked grin as he addressed a room full of agents and other FBI personnel, including the Bishops. The briefing had been convened in a great hurry and the tension in the room was almost tangible. Only a few people knew what was going on and the rest were talking in hushed, nervous voices. Now everyone snapped to attention as Broyles rose and began to speak:

"We have less than 24 hours before an attack of unprecedented scale is going to be launched against us. We know the time of the attack and that the nature of it will be in the form of an immense machine. We are also expecting soldiers to protect it, so there is a great likelihood that we will have to engage in military action. The Army is mobilising as we speak. Doctor Bishop, what are our options for counter measures?"

"Thank you, Agent Broyles," Walter sprinted to the front of the room, his eyes shining brightly despite the impeding danger. "Walternate will attempt to rip apart our universe using a machine he has been assembling for a very long time. Now, we cannot be certain whether he needs to activate the machine in our reality or his own, but considering that the final piece of the machine is in our world, I would expect him to somehow transfer the whole machine here.

"We have three possibilities for stopping Walternate's plan – prevent him from transferring the machine to our world, destroy the machine before he has a chance to use it and keep Peter safe from the shape shifters. Those of you who don't already know, my son Peter is from Walternate's world and the machine has been built to respond to him alone, making him the missing piece for the device. As long as we can keep him away from Walternate, the machine is harmless.

"Peter has seen the machine in the other world and has indicated that it will be difficult to move it any great distances once it has been assembled. We therefore assume that the machine will stay in its current location in the Liberty Island and that it is there that the attack will take place. We should concentrate our efforts there and also ensure that the whole island is evacuated of all members of the public by tomorrow afternoon. That should provide us with enough time to get everything ready for the attack.

"Our first line of defence is to prevent them from crossing over at all. Previously Walternate and his shape shifters have managed this using sound wave resonation and by simply replacing something from here with something from there. It has not always been an exact mode of travelling and there may be a time delay. Agent Dunham here has an ability to see an advance warning before something is about to vanish. I would not expect them to replace the entire island, although that would be a remarkable thing to see, as that would require enormous amounts of energy. They may instead transfer the device outside so that they don't risk collapsing part of their head quarters on the island. As such, it is likely that something with the machine's equivalent mass will disappear from our side.

"In the past we have had some moderate success in disrupting their transfer with a help of a device we put together. The problem wit it is that only Peter is able to operate it without having his molecules ripped to shreds. This in turn puts him firmly in harm's way. We will therefore require heavy protection for him to make sure the shape shifters will not attempt to seize him while he is operating the device. Which reminds me, everyone going near the island will need to have their blood tested to make sure they are not shape shifters. Massive Dynamic will be able to help us there. Agent Farnsworth, perhaps you could make a note to give Miss Sharpe a call urgently.

"I would personally be delighted to study his machine once the threat has been neutralised, as there are pieces missing from our copy of it, but I expect my scientific curiosity to be a secondary consideration. If the device has to be destroyed, so be it. Agent Broyles, I suggest that you advise the Army to have some missiles ready in case they are needed, although we must of course be mindful of the surrounding area. It would not do to blow up the Statue of Liberty." Walter glanced around and then seemed to get distracted by the patterns in the carpet.

"Doctor Bishop, what do you need from us?" Broyles' question focused Walter's attention once more.

"Oh, I will need to check the sound wave disruptor to make sure everything is working as it should. It may need to be expanding as well to help it cope with a bigger capacity of objects being moved. I would also like to review our copy of the plans for Walternate's machine to check for any weak points we should target." He paused for a moment. "And please may I have some gummy bears? Not the green ones, mind you. Disgusting beasts." His attention faltered and he started tugging at the edge of his cardigan anxiously.

Broyles gave various agents aspects of the operation to oversee and then dismissed the staff, with an order to reconvene for another briefing in the morning. Only the Bishops, Olivia and Astrid stayed behind and they walked closer to Broyles, looking serious. They all knew that their defences were based on an awfully many assumptions.

"I know you all have things you want to do," Broyles said, matching their serious expressions, "but I want you to leave them until tomorrow morning." Four pairs of eyebrows rose in puzzlement at this. "I want you all to go home now and be with your loved ones. If we die tomorrow, we will have spent our last night alive as we should have spent every day leading up to this. If we survive, we then we will have said and done things we should have done a long time ago. Either way, don't waste tonight doing work." He fixed his piercing eyes to Olivia. "That's an order."

"Ooh, Peter, can we go eat sushi and toffee popcorn?" Walter asked hopefully, his eyes lighting up.

"Sure Walter," Peter agreed and followed his father, who sprinted out of the room, but not before he nodded to the agents. His eyes lingered on Olivia for a moment, who looked away. Olivia and Astrid were slower to leave the briefing room and after a numb goodbye in the lobby they went their separate ways. Broyles watched them leave the building and then picked up his phone. "Get me the commander of the Army Rangers for tomorrow's mission."

_"All the little battles that you never won,  
All the music and the opera never sung,  
Emotions that were silent all these years"_

Astrid went straight home, where she quickly changed and picked up the phone. Her parents were number 3 on her speed dial after Olivia and Peter, which now made her smile sadly. Her mother answered the phone almost immediately.

"Hi mom," Astrid's smile brightened. "Is it too late to come to visit you? I haven't had dinner yet so I thought I could grab something for all of us on the way over and perhaps I could spend the night?" She listened for a moment. "Yes, I know your neighbour's son, what about him?" She frowned when she saw there her mother was going, but before she could dash her mother's hopes, she thought again. "Fine, you can arrange a date for us, maybe for next weekend. I'll see you in a little while."

Olivia drove home as Broyles had ordered, feeling restless. Once there, she looked around her apartment, considering all the changes she had made in order to be able to stay in her own home since returning from the other world. She had replaced most of her clothes and all the linens and towels, as merely washing them had not been enough to ease her discomfort. She had done the same with all her toiletries and all the opened food in the house. Now everything looked a little different, which helped her resist the urge to run away from her own life.

She took a long hot shower, gradually feeling her tight muscles relaxing under the relentless spray. Towards the end of the shower, when much of her tension had washed down the drain, she surprised herself by beginning to hum one of her favourite songs. As she fumbled through the words she realised that she had not heard the song since her return and resolved to put the CD on when she was done in the bathroom. Later she dressed in yoga pants and a t-shirt and curled up on the sofa with a glass of wine and her phone, just as the CD began to play. She dialled without hesitation and listened as the call connected, before a tired voice answered. "Hey Rachel, I was hoping you had time to talk?"

Peter watched absentmindedly as his father caught the last sushi/popcorn combo with his chop sticks and guided it to his mouth. Walter let out a contented sigh as he chewed the crunchy popcorn into the raw fish, his explanation of the uses of liquid nitrogen in home improvements momentarily stalled. He swallowed and then finished off his cherry caramel milkshake, before turning to look at his son with sympathetic eyes.

"You should go to her," Walter said, rousing Peter from his thoughts. He had stopped listening to his father's ramblings some time ago, when his musings inevitably drifted to a certain blond FBI agent.

"Huh?" Peter made no attempt to be more articulate than that.

"You should go be with Olivia," Walter repeated, looking exasperated. "You can't stop thinking about her anyway and Agent Broyles did order us to spend tonight with the people we love."

"Which is why I'm spending it with you," Peter smiled at his father, not bothering to claim that he was not thinking about Olivia.

"I am not the only person in this world you love, son," Walter argued, "and it would be selfish of me to deprive you of a night with Olivia, when tomorrow we may well be dead. Go on, I'll be fine. I rather fancy going to see Gene anyway. I believe she will enjoy sharing these gummy bears you bought me."

"Are you sure you'll be okay?" Peter asked, uncertainly. He could not deny that the thought of going to Olivia was not tempting, even if she might not be feeling too cordial towards him. He should at least make one last attempt at fixing things between the two of them.

"I'll be fine, son," Walter assured him. "I have money, a list of phone numbers to contact if I get lost and the new tracker in my neck is working perfectly."

"Okay then," Peter got up and left enough money on the table to cover their dinner, hope glimmering in his eyes.

"Oh, son," his father's voice made Peter turn, "thank you. Thank you for wanting to spend tonight with me, it means a lot to me." There seemed to be tears in Walter's eyes.

"You're welcome, Walter," Peter smiled warmly and left the restaurant. He was planning to drive straight to Olivia's apartments, but an idea made him take a longer route so he could make a quick stop on the way.

_"You can't smell the roses when you're gone,  
You can't smell the roses, no it's not a rehearsal,  
You only get one life to make it right"_

Olivia and Rachel spoke on the phone for over two hours, chatting about their childhood, Ella, their hopes and their fears. Olivia could tell that her sister was increasingly bewildered by the length of the phone call and by her inability to discern its purpose. She made a point of telling her sister just how proud she was of Rachel and of the way she was bringing Ella up, with minimal help from Ella's father. As she spoke with Rachel, Olivia saw the truth in Broyles' words from earlier. She really should have said these things a long ago, but she was glad she had the chance to say them now. Regardless of what happened the following evening, Olivia realised that perhaps she was too focused on successes and failures of the Fringe division and had failed for a long time now to appreciate the things that really mattered to her personally, like Rachel and Ella. An image of Peter flashed into her mind, but she pushed it away quickly.

When Rachel could no longer conceal her yawns, Olivia suddenly became aware of just how long she had kept her sister up. Living with Ella was exhausting and Rachel needed all the sleep she could get. She started to say good night, but then paused.

"Hey Rachel, would you do me a favour? Call in sick tomorrow, you and Ella both. Go for a picnic in the park, go to a theme park or a zoo, or do anything else fun you've been meaning to do together but somehow never got round to it. Would you do that for me, please?" She smiled at her sister's confusion.

"I just think both you and Ella deserve a fun day together. You never know when you need good memories like that. Will you do it?"

"Great, I love you Rachel. Kiss Ella for me, please. Good night."

Olivia sat on the sofa for a while, smiling as she thought of her sister and her niece. The final notes of the CD fading into silence roused her from her reverie. She had restarted the CD already once during her phone call with Rachel and she debated doing so again. She drained the last drops of wine from her glass and got up to put the phone back in its cradle, when she heard a knock on the door. She raised an eyebrow, but opened the door without hesitation. There was only one person who would be visiting her at such a late hour.

"Peter." He was holding something behind his back and she smiled a little, instantly intrigued.

"Here you go." Peter produced a bouquet of roses from behind his back and offered it to surprised Olivia. "I realised I have never bought you flowers and since I may be running out of opportunities…" He let the implications of his words hang between them.

"Thank you."

Olivia took the flowers from Peter and indicated that he should come in. She shut the door behind him and then headed for the kitchen. She unwrapped the roses and paused to admire them. The flowers were a deep red in colour and heavily scented. Olivia inhaled the heady perfume deeply and with some reluctance set the flowers down on the kitchen counter long enough to find a vase for them. She looked around her apartment for the best place to put the vase and blushed a little as she took them to her bedroom, so that she would see and smell the roses first thing in the morning. Peter watched her movements with a relaxed smile, strangely touched by the simple pleasure she seemed to find from his gesture. She caught him watching her and blushed a little more, biting her lip nervously.

_"What if I told you that I had regrets,  
I would trade in all my happiness for one last kiss,  
For a minute or two lying by your side"_

"Thank you for the flowers," Olivia said again, eager to break the silence that had fallen between them. It had been a comfortable silence, which only made her more nervous.

"You're welcome," he smiled at her uneasiness. "I figured this could be a night for firsts as well as lasts."

"So you never bought flowers for…her?" Olivia bit her lip when the question slipped out, but she had to know.

"No," Peter shook his head. "It never seemed like the time was right for that."

She gestured towards the sofa and he sat down in the middle. Olivia followed after hesitating a moment and almost as a second thought the started the CD going again. Peter's choice of position on the sofa meant that when she sat down next to him, she was instantly aware of just how close they were.

"Olivia," Peter began, reaching out as if to touch her hand, but stopping himself just short of physical contact, "I need you to know how much I regret my own blindness for not seeing that the wrong Olivia returned from the other world with us. I'm sorry that I ignored all the little signs, because I wanted to think that it was me who was making you smile more and want to spend more time as 'us'. I'm also sorry that I didn't realise you were trapped on the other side, because if I had, I would have worked night and day to find a way to bring you home." He shook his head at all the regrets he had.

"Whatever happiness I felt with the other Olivia, I would gladly trade it for a moment longer with you in the other world when you came to find me." He pulled back his hand to drag it through his hair, unable to look at the woman beside him.

"_What if I chose a road nobody walked,  
If I honoured all my promises with empty talk,  
If I knew back then the things that I know now_  
_I would tell you that I love you, that we all get low,  
There are peaks and there are valleys, but you've got to know,  
A second chance, it rarely comes around"_

"I just need some time, Peter," Olivia whispered eventually, when it became clear that Peter was not going to continue.

"Time," Peter repeated bitterly, rose from the sofa and began pacing around the living room, "that's the one thing we may no longer have."

"We'll stop Walternate tomorrow, somehow," Olivia assured him, sounding more confident than she actually felt.

"Somehow indeed," Peter shook his head, "you do realise that there is a fourth way to stop the end of the world, which Broyles conveniently didn't mention while we were around."

"What are you talking about?" Olivia frowned, cold dread settling in the pit of her stomach.

"I'm the missing piece of the machine and without me it will never work. If all of our other options fail, there are without a doubt snipers tactically deployed around the island in such a way that they can kill me rather than allow me anywhere near the device." Peter continued his pacing.

"Broyles would never agree to that," Olivia argued, but even in her own ears her voice lacked conviction.

"I would," Peter turned to face Olivia, "if it meant saving this world. He may not have a choice anyway. What is about to happen tomorrow is much bigger than the Fringe division or the FBI and if saving our universe means losing one life, then that is surely a sacrifice worth making."

Olivia's eyes widened with horror as she realised the truth in his words. Peter's expression softened when he saw her reaction and he kneeled on the floor in front of her, taking her hands into his.

"It's okay Olivia," he spoke softly. "I will gladly give my life to save you, let alone the whole world. I've been a conman, a liar and a criminal for much of my life, so perhaps this is a way to make up for my past mistakes, all of them."

A single tear landed on his hand and he smiled sadly at Olivia. He brushed his thumb over her cheek to dry the wetness that lingered on her skin and then tucked a lock of blond hair behind her ear. Olivia started to speak, but he boldly silenced her by placing a finger on her lips.

"So you see how time is running short," he continued, "even if you survive tomorrow, I may not. That's why I need to tell you something on hindsight I should have told you a long time ago.

"I love you Olivia. And before you ask, no, I never said that to the other Olivia. I have been in love with you for a long time, but even when I thought I was dating you, I couldn't find the courage to tell you. But regardless of whether we live or die tomorrow, I need you to know it.

"I also realise that my loving you doesn't right my past mistakes, or make things right between us. I would hope that if we get through tomorrow you will one day be able to give us a chance to find out what you and I could be together, but I can't bear the thought of dying without you know how I really feel about you."

Finishing his monologue, Peter looked at Olivia hesitantly, trying to establish her reaction to him blurting out his feelings about her. Her face was a mask of uncertainty, but she freed her fingers from his grasp and slowly extended them to brush against his cheek. Leaning forward, she placed a feather-light kiss on his lips.

"I'm not ready to let you go," she whispered, leaning her forehead against his, "not now and not ever."

"Olivia," Peter savoured her name in his mouth, his feelings for her making his eyes burn with dark fire. She shivered under the intense heat of his gaze, their proximity only amplifying the effect, and captured his lips once more.

"_You can't smell the roses when you're gone,  
So live every moment like it's the last night on earth,  
Because this is the last night on earth"_

Despite Peter's protests that he did not want to push her, they ended up in her bedroom, their clothes strewn across the rooms. Later, when their skin was cooling and their breathing evened, they laid in each other's arms, talking quietly about all the things they had always wanted to say, but had never found the time to do so. Their sentences were punctuated by kisses, which grew slower as gradually fatigue claimed them. Peter held Olivia close and buried his face in her hair, unable to keep his eyes open any longer. Olivia's even breathing suggested that she had already drifted off to sleep. Peter's last conscious thought was the tomorrow they would be fighting to save their world, but tonight they had reminded themselves what it was that they were fighting for.


End file.
